Wednesday, May 23, 2018

Here is the full interview on crafting,
writing and selling short stories that I recently did for Terence Toh for his
article “The Long and Short of it” in The Star.
Some of the best stuff was left out since it featured several other writers and
readers.

1. Why do you enjoy writing short stories?

When I first began to write, I would
spend 15 minutes every day randomly describing something by carefully observing
my surroundings, whether I was at home, eating outside, waiting at a bus stop
or inside a bank.Most of the short
stories that I wrote for my Popular Readers Choice Award winning collection Lovers and Strangers Revisited began that
way.I didn’t set out to write a short
story, yet by merely observing my surroundings, an idea would take hold and I
would stay with it for as long as it took to rough out a first draft.What an unexpected joy — turning an exer­cise
into a short story in a couple of hours.Now that you have a new story, you got something to work with…which is a
whole lot more enjoyable than staring at a blank page.

2. How is the process of writing and editing a short story different
from other forms of writing, eg. novels?

A short story, like a good poem, has
a singular effect, a singular voice.Novels can by rangy and loose.Short stories are taut, no wasted words are allowed, no
digressions.Being short, about 8-25
pages, it can be roughed out and polished in a matter of days, weeks, whereas a
novel takes months, years.It takes a
lot of patience.Sometimes it feels like
you’re digging a ditch, day after day, week after week, month after month, but
you just got to keep on digging until you reach the end of that novel, then you
got to revise and edit it, draft after draft.Far too many writers give up after the initial inspiration dries
up.God,
this is taking forever!

3. In your opinion, what elements
should a great short story have?

A well-crafted short story has it
all:tight writing, great imagery, apt
descrip­tions, resonating mood, controlling theme, memorable characters, plus a
logical, well-thought out, plausible story even if its fantasy or science
fiction.It has a singular effect driven
to an inevitable conclusion even if we never saw it coming, leaving the reader
feeling utterly satisfied.

4. What is the greatest challenge of creating a memorable short story?

The biggest challenge is creating an
effective story with a unified theme that holds it all together, something that
resonates deeply with the reader.We
have to show this (as if we’re watching a play or a movie unfold), not tell,
and the reader doesn’t often see this over-arching theme until the final
resolution, something else they didn’t see coming, despite it being a logical
cul­min­­a­tion based on what came before….Too many begin­ning writers try to
trick the reader to show how “clever” they are; but in fact they’ve cheated the
reader by creating an im­plausible ending that leaves the reader scratching his
head and thinking, “Huh?”Whereas, a
memorable short story is based on logic, even if the ending is unexpected, yet
the clues, the inner workings of the story, the cause and effects of the
characters’ actions, were all in place.We’re left thinking, “Wow, great story!”

5. How is the reception like for
short stories in Malaysia? (compared to other parts of the world, if you are
familiar with them?)

I think it’s wonderful what Amir
Muhammad is doing with Fixi Novo, creating outlets for local writers.It’s one thing to be published online,
another to hold a book with your story in it.On-line publishers, however, often have a greater reach….Markets in
Malaysia (and around the world) have always come and gone.Back in the late 80’s/early 90’s many of my
short stories were published in Her World
and Female and other local magazines here
and in Singapore that published short stories every month; but then they dried
up.Others would appear and
disappear.Recently Esquire Malaysia published fiction, but then stopped.I used to go to newsstands and scour local
magazines to see if any new markets have appeared; now writers can do that by Googling….It
was great when Raman Krish­nan came out with his Silverfish anthologies and
then began publishing short story collections by Malaysian writers.MPH has also been very successful.The markets and publish­ers are there; they
may come and go, but the writer has to look for them, just like writers do all
over the world.Malay­sian writers can
even submit their stories overseas online.I’ve had Malaysian-set short stories published in twelve countries.

—Borneo Expat Writer

My interviews with other writers on their first novels:

Ivy
Ngeow author of Cry of the Flying Rhino, winner
of the 2016 Proverse Prize.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

Do short stories get short shrift in Malaysia, or is
brevity really the soul of wit? We find out what authors and readers have to
say.

Malaysian
authors, publishers and readers discuss the long and short of short story
collections.

THE greatest short
story in the world is only six words long: “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn”.

The author of that punch to the gut has
never been officially identified but the story is often attributed to Ernest
Hemingway, the American author renowned for succint prose expressed in short,
declarative sentences.

Sometimes, less really is more. These
words are the mantra of the short story writer, who often manages to create
wonderful worlds, with their own beginnings, middle and ends, with the same
number of words a novelist would use to introduce a single character or
describe one scene.

Compared to novels, however, it seems
like short stories are often considered “lesser” than longer works.

So what exactly goes into the creation
of a good short story? And do readers like them?

We asked some local short story
writers, publishers and fans to find out.

The editors:

“Short story collections have played
second fiddle to novels for a long time, whether in Malaysia or international
markets,” says Chua Kok Yee, author and co-editor of the recent horror
anthology Remang And Other Ghostly Tales.

He points to Fixi, one of the popular
imprints from indie publisher Amir Muhammad.

“Using Fixi’s topsellers list as the
bellwether, we can see that novels are outselling collections of short stories.
That said, it is heartening to see five out of 10 nominees for fiction in this
year’s Readers’ Choice Awards are collections of short stories. It was the same
number in last year’s edition of the award, so maybe local readers’ acceptance
of short stories is on the rise,” he says.

Chua is referring to this year’s
Popular-The Star Readers’ Choice Awards for which 10 fiction and 10 nonfiction
titles have been nominated; nominees are chosen from last year’s bestselling
local titles in Popular and Harris bookstores nationwide, so we know that
Malaysians bought a lot of anthologies in 2017.

But could that be because the industry
is simply not putting novels out?

Amir, whose imprints Fixi and Fixi Novo
publish Malay and English fiction respectively, says not many people publish
novels in Malaysia, which results in many short story collections floating
around.

Despite this, however, he thinks that
most locals prefer longer and meatier works – “It’s the difference between
having an entire self-contained nasi lemak versus eating 20 keropok,” as he
puts it.

Many of the short story anthologies he
publishes don’t sell even 5,000 copies, Amir says, though he adds that there
are exceptions, such as KL Noir: Red (2013), which sold 18,000 copies, and
Tunku Halim’s Horror Stories (2014), which sold 32,000.

Famous names and popular genres tend to
sell more copies, he points out. “Names that are unknown now can always become
famous later, just due to one book published later. Mankind needs hope to
survive,” he says, tongue-in-cheek.

The writers:

According to author Robert Raymer,
markets for short stories in Malaysia often came and went.

“Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s
many of my short stories were published in Her World and Female and other local
magazines here and in Singapore. They published short
stories every month; but then they dried up. Others would appear and disappear.

“Recently, Esquire Malaysia magazine
began publishing fiction, but then stopped,” Raymer says via e-mail from
Kuching where he has been based for 12 years.

A more globalised world, however, means
that Malaysians are free to promote their short stories in many more exciting
venues.

“The markets and publishers are there;
they may come and go, but the writer has to look for them, just like writers do
all over the world. Malaysian writers can even submit their stories overseas
online. I’ve had Malaysia-set short stories published in 12 countries,” Raymer
says.

He has written several anthologies,
including Lovers And Strangers Revisited (2008), which was a winner in the 2009
Readers’ Choice Awards.

When it comes to writing short stories,
you probably can’t get any shorter than the works in Micro Malaysians (2017), a
book of micro-fiction: none of the stories in it is over 150 words long. Editor
Anwar Hadi, who curated the works, says it takes a tremendous amount of skill
to do well in so little space.

“I think writers are freer to explore
their weirder ideas in short stories than they are in longer forms of writing.
They don’t have to dedicate as much time to writing short stories as they would
novels, so greater risks in writing can be taken.

“The cost in terms of time isn’t as
heavy, and I think we readers can be on the receiving end of those riskier
pieces and be more expansive in our reading in the process,” Anwar says in an
e-mail interview. Chua agrees with this.

“For the reader, short story
collections require less of an investment in time and emotions compared to a
novel. We can finish a story within 15 minutes or half an hour, and then do
something else before starting the next one.

“It is much harder to do that if you
are reading a good novel. Many readers would have experienced this; you start
reading a novel, and then have to say goodbye to your social life for the next
few days or weeks!” he says.

Raymer feels that one of the delights
of creating short stories is how they take less time than novels.

“A short story, like a good poem, has a
singular effect, a singular voice. Novels can be rangy and loose. Short stories
are taut, no wasted words are allowed, no digressions.

“Being short, about eight to 25 pages,
it can be roughed out and polished in a matter of days, weeks, whereas a novel
can take months, years even. It takes a lot of patience,” he says.

The readers:

As it turns out, Malaysians are also
fond of short story anthologies. Some readers, however feel that anthologies
often get the short end of the stick compared to longer works.

“I do think short story collections are
generally less celebrated and less effort is put into marketing them. I think
they are unfairly dismissed as a gateway medium for novice writers. There’s a
certain privileging of the novel format as the ultimate medium of literature,”
says avid reader Diana Yeong, 43.

Yeong says while she doesn’t actively
seek out short story collections, she doesn’t shy away from them either. Some
of her favourite collections included Patricia McKillip’s Dreams Of Distant Shores (2016), Ted
Chiang’s Stories Of Your Life And Others (2010) and Ken Liu’s The Paper
Menagerie And Other Stories (2011). “Collections
can be hit and miss and more often than not will have at least a couple that
miss the mark, and only one or two in the entire collection that have that
‘wow’ factor,” Yeong says.

“There’s an element of delicious
surprise going into each story, which is a nice contrast with the immersive
nature of novel reading. I like diving deep into characters and places and
situations with novels, but short stories are a refreshing change of pace.”

Honey Ahmad, 41, thinks that short
story collections are a great way to get to know a new author. She often reads
collections online, especially when in the mood for a break. At the moment,
she’s reading Miranda July’s Stories and John Connolly’s Night Music. Among her favorite collections
are Jhumpa Lahiri’s Intepreter Of Maladies, Lara Vapnyar’s Brocolli And Other Tales Of
Food And Love.

“Annie Proulx also writes spare and
beautiful short prose. For horror I love Joe Hill’s stuff and in fantasy George
R.R. Martin writes some of the best fantasy shorts out there. I also love Ted
Chiang’s shorts too as he melds sci-fi, fantasy and the human condition so well
in a short story form,” Honey said. “It is a different skill writing short
stories. Often they take you down surprising places and I love how a good story
can be told with few words. That takes mad skills.”

Followers

About Me

Named as one of the “50 Expats You Should Know” by Expatriate Lifestyle, American Robert Raymer is a freelance editor, writing consultant, and author who has taught creative writing at two Malaysian universities, was the editor of Silverfish New Writings 4, has judged short story competitions, and conducted numerous workshops on writing and creative writing. His short stories and articles have been published over 500 times in The Literary Review, Thema, Aim, London Magazine, Going Places, My Weekly, The Writer and Reader’s Digest. Lovers and Strangers Revisited (MPH 2008), a collection of short stories set in Malaysia, winner of the 2009 Popular-The Star Readers Choice Awards, has been taught in several universities and private colleges and currently being translated into French. Tropical Affairs: Episodes from an Expat's Life in Malaysia (MPH 2009) is a collection of creative nonfiction about living in Malaysia for over twenty years. His latest book is Spirit of Malaysia (Editions Didier Millet). His blog on writing is borneoexpatwriter.blogspot.com,